Wi-Fi

In today’s concrete jungle, pavement takes up a lot of space, so we might as well cram some smarts in there. Now NASA is installing a high-tech new path that lights up, emits Wi-Fi signals and generates electricity, due to greet visitors to the Kennedy Space Center.

Researchers from the University of Washington have 3D-printed objects and sensors that are able to communicate with Wi-Fi devices such as smartphones or computers without needing to be powered by batteries or a wall socket.

Over the last few years we've seen a big trend in regular household objects being turned into gravity-defying, levitating marvels. The latest device to float onto the scene is the Moon – a smart camera with a wide array of extra features.

There’s a ton of trackers to find items that are always vanishing around the house, but most aren’t much good long-range. Samsung is now jumping into the tracker game with the Connect Tag, which uses a cellular connection to get a GPS readout essentially anywhere there’s a cell phone tower.

​A computer security researcher has discovered a major security flaw in the WPA2 protocol that protects the majority of Wi-Fi networks. This revelation means that every device using WPA2 Wi-Fi security is vulnerable to being spied on and simply changing your password won’t prevent an attack.

SproutBox Design says its Aivia speaker has similar smarts to Google's Home speaker and Amazon's Echo, but with better sonic output. Like those devices, it can be controlled by voice, but it also has a touchscreen, a video camera, a wireless device charging surfaceand a 15-watt subwoofer out back.​

​Three years ago, scientists used Wi-Fi-equipped ground-based robots to obtain 2D images of objects hidden behind brick walls. Now, using aerial drones, they've obtained 3D images of similarly-hidden objects.

In the latest edition of "crowdfunding campaign: cool or crap?" comes Sound Heroes, a Bluetooth speaker in the shape of a humanoid robot. Apparently there are plenty who would place this one in the "cool" camp as the campaign reached its goal in only four minutes.

​We think of Wi-Fi as bathing us in a comfy, invisible blanket of data and internet access, but just as a blanket can take on the shapes of the bodies it covers, the microwave radiation sent out from a hotspot can be used to generate a three-dimensional image of the surrounding environment.

Although there are plenty of ways to avoid being distracted while driving, starting with a healthy dose of self control, Nissan has taken a no-holds barred approach to stopping smartphone communication on the move. Meet the Signal Shield concept, a Faraday Cage for the armrest of your car.

Concrete might seem like an odd material to make speakers out of, but it's not unheard of. Now, for its first foray into the world of wireless speakers, Master and Dynamic is launching the MA770, an industrial-chic concrete block with supposedly superior acoustics and a range of input options.

A few years ago, Sony released a business-focused e-paper tablet, and now the company has updated the device with higher resolution, bigger memory, NFC and Bluetooth connectivity, a new pen-friendly screen and a few bonus workflow features.